Your eyes suddenly open, much to your surprise. You find yourself on a road made of light, one of many - more than you can count. All roads seem to lead to the center - a sphere covered in a sprawling, labyrinthine structure. Lightning flashes across the...void? You wouldn't call it a sky, so you suppose that world will have to do.

Miss Fury

Slapstick

Bullseye

Green Goblin

Elijah Snow

Starband

Gwenpool

You are...The Exiles!

You see others immediately nearby. Some may be familiar to you, but others are completely alien. Perhaps in more than one way. You will have to decide for yourself whether to trust your fellows, and how best to discover your location.

Welcome to the game! Each of you is in the same boat, finding yourself in a very strange place when you were expecting nothing but oblivion. Feel free to meet and greet for a bit, you'll be meeting a guide soon enough! In your first post, please make sure to post your character sheet for reference. For formatting of all your posts, keep track of your PP, XP, and Stress. Everybody starts with 1 PP. Second post will be a bookkeeping post for me where I'll track assets, complications, turn order, etc.

"...fascinating. That's not quite the Bleed...well, we're within expected values."

Elijah Snow peels the smoking remnants of the Bleedsuit off, tossing them onto the road of light. There isn't much to them, anyway - a Bleedsuit need not be especially complex to make a one-way trip, and anything bigger would've been too expensive for this experiment. He reaches into his jacket, removing a small tablet as he starts walking down the road of light, looking around.

"Drums, I've arrived safely. The Bleedsuit was burnt out, as expected, but you should be able to fix on my signal in case of emergencies. Do not, I repeat, do not send Wilder to fetch me unless I specifically tell you to do so. I don't think the shiftship was made for an area like this, or it'd be on their maps. Send."

He takes a deep breath, looking around.

"So this is the center. Well, I suppose I should see who's in charge around here." He looks down at the tablet for a moment, activating the map projection. A hologram appears before him.

"Note to self, find a way to change the damned font.".

Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at May 12, 2018 around 22:21

Milestones
Miss America
Gain 1 xp when you flaunt your looks and charm in a support action, by flirting.
Gain 3 xp when you use your civilian alter ego to create a resource.
Gain 10 xp when you rebuke the flirtations of another hero, or decide they deserve more of your attention.

The Black Fury
Gain 1 xp the first time in a scene when you inflict physical trauma on an opponent.
Gain 3 xp when you use a covert asset to eliminate an unaware opponent.
Gain 10 xp when you either suffer trauma at the hands of an opponent, or are captured by the enemy.

Having found herself... somewhere unexpected instead of the grand finale of her mission, Patsy is, at first, very confused. Her first instinct was to hide and observe, but there was literally no place to hide, and what she could observe was indescribable. So her second instinct was to head toward the one thing she could definitely see. Until she heard a voice, and saw a silver haired man up ahead. She was about to consider how best to eliminate him, when the distinctly American accent caught her ear. Worst case, he was a spy of some sort. Maybe a defector? A prisoner wouldn't be dressed so well. But then, this absolutely couldn't be Hitler's bunker anyway, could it?

"Oh, hell, I've got no real options anyway, and he isn't packing a luger." she decided.

"Excuse me, fella; you wouldn't happen to be a Fascist, would you?" She said somewhat playfully as she approached slowly with her .45 in the no sudden movements position.

"Oooooooh...." Slapstick narrowed her eyes against the brightness of the light. The bridges streached out before her. She'd been to all kinds of crazy places, done all kinds of crazy things. This one... this one was new-

OH MY GOD WHO WAS THAT CUTIE OVER THERE? Slapstick's eyes stretch out of her head in excitement! Those pink highlights! They were so colourful! I couldn't help but be drawn to them. Hey, I'm mostly black and white (I mean, at the moment. My appearance shifts with whatever genre I'm in. So I get colour sometimes.)

"Can't be too careful these days." She replies. Satisfied by the man's clear disdain for the question, she holsters her weapon and changes tack slightly - still ready to pounce at a moment's notice, but now he might feel a little safer - "So just who are you then, mister?" one question at a time, don't let them know how much you don't know...

"...charmed to make your acquaintance." She replied taking Elijah's hand, and noting how odd it was for a man to offer to shake, rather than kiss it. "You may call me Miss Fury for the time being." She got no farther before their attentions were caught by what appeared to be a... cartoon?

Ooookay. Well, not dead was a thing. An unexpected thing, but a thing nonetheless. Peter looked up, rather, well confused. But he was guessing that was probably only natural. Assuming anything was natural, wherever here was.

More to the point, it appeared that somehow, his glider made it to wherever unfinished blank spot was despite him pretty distinctly remembering falling off it in his toussle with Harry. Yet there it was hovering up above him. He tapped the button on his belt so it came to and hopped aboard, giving it an appreciative tap to which it answered with a dull THUNK THUNK!

"Well, at least there's A familiar face." He joked to himself and then launched into the air...or whatever it was, to get a look at what was going on. There looked like a guy in a trenchcoat and a decidedly not Felicia looking woman in a catsuit arguing with each other and...a cartoon. Well, that was something, anyway.

Maybe he WAS dead, after all. But if he was he might as well meet the residents of the afterlife. He sat unceremoniously on his glider as it hovered down to about ten or so feet above everybody else arguing and inclined his head.

"So uh, scuze me folks, but, seems I might have made a wrong turn at Albequerque. Anybody know the way back to Brooklyn? I am really, REALLY late for a hot date."

quote:

Green Goblin (Peter Parker, Secret)

Affiliations Solo d10, Buddy d6, Team d8

Distinctions:
A Monster Hides Within
Wisecracker
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

SFX: Genius. Spend a power point to step up a Tech Master or Science Master stunt or resource and recover mental or emotional stress.
SFX: Second Wind. Before you make an action including a Goblin Augmentations power, you may move your physical stress die to the doom pool and step up the Goblin Augmentations power by +1 for this action.
SFX: Seething Rage. Step up or double any Goblin Augmentations power for one action. If the action fails, add the power die to the doom pool.
Limit: Exhausted. Shutdown any Goblin Augmentation power to gain 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.

SFX: Pumpkin Bombs. When using Weapons to inflict an Obscuring complication on a target, add a d6 and step up Weapons die.
SFX: Goblin Tracer. Spend 1 PP or use an effect die to create a Traced complication for a target. You may track that target anywhere until the complication is removed.
SFX: Stun Grenades. Add d6 and step up effect die by +1 when inflicting a Stunned complication on a target.
Limit: Limited Ammunition. Shutdown any Goblin Arsenal power and gain 1 PP. Take an action vs. doom pool to recover.

Milestones:
A CURE, OR A CALAMITY?
1xp When you use humor to cover up your anger and rage
3xp When you find something new that you think might lead to a breakthrough
10xp When you find a way to modify the Goblin Serum so that you are cured, or you gain great power at the cost of even greater rage

DEADLY FOES OF THE GREEN GOBLIN
1xp When you declare a villain as an old foe.
3xp When you take trauma from your chosen foe.
10xp When you forgive your chosen foe, or they beg for your forgiveness and you refuse them.

LifeGetsWorser fucked around with this message at May 16, 2018 around 03:09

"Ok, if no one else sees the cartoon girl, let me know and I'll adjust my amount of talking to it, but uh..." He turns his head towards the aforementioned cartoon girl directly. "What is a 'Spidey', exactly?"

LifeGetsWorser fucked around with this message at May 16, 2018 around 03:09

Slapstick's cocks an eyebrow, it moves slowly up her head until it bypasses the limit of her face and floats off into the endless void. With practised ease, she pulls out a felt tip, and colours in her missing eyebrow.

"That would be you. Ya dressed up like Spiderman, but look got sneezed on by a giant! Don't tell me I'm the only one seeing this?" she appeals to the others.

Maybe he had a concussion? Maybe the cartoon had a concussion! Wait, could cartoon girls get concussions?

"I...don't know what a Spiderman is - what about my outfit makes you think "spider"? Did I get some of Venom's on me?" He glances down at his costume - nope, doesn't look like it. "I'm how I'm always supposed to look unless your uh...eyes...work differently than a person's do. Maybe that's it. Do I have extra arms or something?" He pauses for a second. He didn't recognize any of these other people, definitely not the cartoon but not the other ones either. Wait a second, something wasn't adding up, even assuming he was concussed, crazy, or dead.

"...don't tell me you've never heard of the Green Goblin?"

LifeGetsWorser fucked around with this message at May 16, 2018 around 03:09

In fact, it might be slightly alarming how suddenly she's here. It's not like there's a teleport effect, or she smashes through a wall, she's just here, stepping in. It might actually be a little disorienting to the eye, since the fictional mind generally rejects the existence of panel borders and gutters, after all. Though there are exceptions, generally with those of deep mystical study, or who have seen beyond the Fourth Wall.

"Don't worry, the exposition will be coming up.", she says to Elijah, looking up slightly. "Huh, you're taller than-", she says, brushing her hand over her head as if to judge height. "Oh, well, I guess you usually stand around somebody even taller. Didn't think of that!" With a blink and and a slightly defensive posture he looks over to the approaching Slapstick. "Um, you are-" A slight pause. "I usually know people a little better. Um... you are..." She hangs there for a moment, before slowly, deliberately putting her hand on her chin as to ponder. Miss Fury? Green Goblin? This wasn't lining up. Shouldn't this be a cast everybody would kinda-sorta know, like a vampire and ninja version of [insert hot book here]? Wait, no, this makes sense. Kind of. Deep breaths. Well, there's the Snowman. And Green Goblin was a draw. That's a start!

She relaxes, putting her hands on her hips. Well, best to just go with the flow. "Anyway, I'm Gwen Poole. International mercenary hero with a heart of gold. Or pink. I haven't decided. Though I guess I'm interdimensional now." She looks down to one of her pouches, looking at them. "Huh, I guess that makes my business cards out of date. And I sprung for the unstable molecules, too." A slight sigh before she spots Miss Fury reaching for her piece. Raising her hands, she adds, "Whoa! 'Two heroes get mixed up and fight' is a classic but it's way less fun with guns, especially for those of us who are still bulletprone."

pre:

Older Girl GwenpoolEarth-TRN565Gwen Poole [public?]Affiliations:Solo d8 Buddy d10 Team d6Distinctions:At One With the Genre
Careless Daring
Metafictional Funnybook FanPower Sets:Between the LinesEnhanced Reflexes d8 Intangibility d12
Invisibility d10 Panel Control d8
Genre Sense d10 Teleport d8SFX:Beat the Devil?: If your pool includes Panel Control or Genre Sense, spend 1 PP to
borrow a die from the doom pool for that roll. Then step back that doom die and return
it to the doom pool.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: When one of your opportunities is activated to add a d6 to
the doom pool, replace it with a d4. Spend 1 PP to do this to an existing d6 in the
doom pool.
Narrative Insurance: Spend 1 PP to ignore stress, trauma, or complications from falls,
blunt impacts, or explosions.
Limit:Editorial Interference: Change any Between the Lines power into a complication and gain
1 PP. Activate an opportunity or remove the complication to recover the power.
Bombs and Bullets and BladesEnhanced Durability d8 Weapon d8SFX:Guns and Stuff: When you activate an opportunity to create a Combat or Vehicle resource,
step up that resource die. In addition, you may step up that resource by a die type when
adding it to a roll, after which the resource is lost.
Sup, Babies?: Add a d6 and keep an additional die for each additional target when using
Weapon.
Limit:Gear: Shutdown Bombs and Bullets and Blades and gain 1 PP. Take an action vs. the doom
pool to recover.
SpecialtiesAcrobatic Expert d8 Combat Expert d8
Covert Expert d8 Vehicle Expert d8MilestonesThe Superhero's Journey1 XP when you get gush to a hero about your fangirl feelings.
3 XP when you team up with a hero or team you've never teamed up with before.
10 XP when you are invited to a major superhero team, or get to headline a solo comic
book again.
The Unbelievable1 XP when you make a reference to something you can only know metafictionally.
3 XP when you deliver a humiliating defeat to a major villain of another superhero.
10 XP when you defy convention and get to enact a major change on the Marvel universe,
such that things will never be the same again! (Or probably just six months to a year.)

MILESTONES:
John Smith Is Dead
1 XP when you encounter the dimensional counterpart of a loved one.
3 XP when you reveal your relationship to the other version.
10 XP when you either decide that the alternate means just as much to you, or cut off contact.

War Zone:
1 XP when you declare war on an enemy.
3 XP when you use a Transition Scene to arm yourself or your allies.
10 XP when you either take trauma in pursuit of your war or you are captured by the enemy.

A hooded woman in black tumbles out of what looks like a spinning gold portal, somehow righting herself to land in a crouch a few meters from the others, a very large and elaborate bow drawn, two arrows already notched and aimed at Elijah and Gwen.

A pale face with a dark patch over her left eye, a red target tattoo inside the patch peeks out from under the lip of the hood, the tension on the bow easing, but only slightly.

"What the hell is this? Who are you people, and where are Fury and Rogers?" She glances between the gathered group and turns her bow 30 degrees, drawing the string tight once more, one arrow now aimed at the woman in the catsuit with her hand on the gun, the other aimed at the guy in green riding what looked like a very familiar glider... but no, he wasn't the Hobgoblin, the colors were all wrong, costume too... also she was dead. And also a woman, not a dude in ugly spandex.

Ok, now it's two people with itchy trigger fingers. One who...Peter was pretty sure was that X-Man (woman) Domino? Only she was pointing a bow and arrow at him!

Him, of all people! The Green Goblin! Who would've thunk it?

He holds his hands up in a submissive posture. He didn't seem particularly worried though. Thanks to his outfit being a UMF/Vibranium weave. Unless they were exploding trick arrows or something. Concussions still hurt.

Peter was pretty sure he had a concussion, by this point, because he kept thinking about it.

"Ok, hey there, Domino. Let's not be too hasty, huh? We are all pretty much on the same page. I mean, in the "What the heck is going on here?" way, not the "Where are 'Fury' and 'Rogers?'" way. To be specific." He smirks, underneath his mask. "Though, if the cartoon girl wasn't a giveaway, I'm willing to bet most, if not all, of us, have a little something special that would probably make pointing arrows, or guns" he adds, throwing the woman in the cat outfit a look for a second "a sort of bad idea. But that's just me."

Something that blonde girl said, the one who looked a lot like his high-school crush Gwen Stacy except in less pants, made Peter pause once his mind had a second to catch up to his mouth.

"Interdimensional, huh? That would explain why at least a few of you seem familiar but...not." He pauses another second. "But why would you say that? I mean, it's not a bad logical leap but...do you know something about this whole...thing?" She had also said something about exposition coming up which, Peter figures was sort of how these things tended to go, but still, it made his head itch in a way that made him uncomfortable. Peter didn't like uncomfortable head itchiness.

LifeGetsWorser fucked around with this message at May 16, 2018 around 03:10

Stranger and stranger things were happening at an alarming rate, and keeping ahead of the game was proving more difficult by the second. "Who on Earth is this woman? Who sent her? Why is she looking for me, but unable to recognize me? How does she not know Captain Rogers is dead?" All these thoughts and more raced by, as Patsy calmed her nerves, and steadied her hand. Ask questions first, shoot later.

Gwen looks from the gun to bow, and raises her hands. "I could explain, but I find it's better to let things play out first. Everything'll be explained, but if you think shooting will make you feel better in the meantime, have at it. Just not at me, okay?"

She glances over to Green Goblin. "Oh, well, I'm from another world to begin with. But the details are... mmm. Crazy. And I think everybody's got an armful of baby crazy they're wrestling right now... I mean, well, me not so much, but I've come to terms with things not having to make too much sense."

She waves a hand lightly at the bow from her arm's raised position. "Buuut if you could point that somewhere else? That thing looks really sharp, not a toy, and true story: I'm allergic to sharp things that stab me. It's like my kryptonite except for all the other things that are also my kryptonite."

Slapstick steps between Gwen and the arrow pointed her way. The grin on her face not moving an inch. A bow and arrow, that was totally adorable!

"Gwen is right. You're all from the other places, aren't you? You're certainly not from my cannon. For one thing the Green Goblin looks... like an actual goblin." Slapstick tugs on her nose and head until it was in the right pointy hooked shape. "Also, he's the bad guys!" She bounces in place, her face resetting to the 'right' shape.

"And I certainly don't remember anyone so colourful." She said, twisting her torso around to look Gwen up and down. "Or so cute." Slapstick winks. Then she fully twists a full 360 to face back the way she started, her legs remaining exactly where they were the whole time. Her chest kinked in the middle like organs didn't even matter. "And I've no idea who you two are." She points at Fury and Elijah. So you probably didn't exist back home. Errr.... well done!" She threw a thumbs up. The disconnected hand sailing off into the void below. Slapstick didn't seem to notice.

"So, now, we're all standing in some kinda lightbridge, acting like we're all going crazy. I'd say it's probably a good idea to put the weapons down, and say hello properly! I'm Slapstick! the living cartoon girl! I was totally the most popular hero back home, so you should CLEARLY all be my friends. Eh? Ehhh?!"

Her patched eye narrowed as everyone else seemed rather cavalier and just as lost and confused as she was.

"... I'm looking for a man with an eyepatch and another with a shield, both were in military uniforms last I'd seen them, which was seconds before I went through the same portal... how do I know you're not all working for or with them and this isn't all part of some trick, maybe by that sorcerer slave of theirs?"

A benefit of her powers, at times, was that when things were off, she'd generally feel it in her gut... She may not be able to control it at all, but it had saved her rear end multiple times over the years. She wasn't getting that feeling now, but she'd also never leapt through a glowing portal into who knows where before, either.

She eased up on the bowstring, but kept the arrows notched and pointed in the general direction of the group as she rose from her crouch, stealing a glance around at her surroundings. Yep, definitely not in Montana anymore, unless this was one of Octavius' secret labs...

"'42, hm? Trick question. The All-American League was founded in '43." He turns towards Domino. "I'll give you this once, young lady, but I don't appreciate threats. Being disoriented counts only so far. As for where we are, I can answer that. And how you got here, sort of. All of you were likely about to die, it's one of the criteria. This place is the center of the multiverse."

He's rather matter of fact about all of it, and calmly begins walking again towards the giant sphere.

"It saves certain people on the brink of death. Taps them to become part of its defense systems. So congratulations - you're all here because the multiverse has decided you needed to survive and help out. I'd suggest you follow me and we find out if it was random or if someone actually directs that kind of thing."

He's banking on random, but his last experiences with multiversal protective systems suggest there's usually something that explains what's expected, or at least instills in the proper instinct.

"Oh, and the name is Elijah Snow. Honestly, these whole alias things you 'hero' people seem to love are ridiculous."

"Bad guy?!" Peter scratches the back of his head. "Me? Your universe is pretty...messed up. If I say so myself."

He takes a glance at everyone else, frowning a bit that Domino still had a bow trained on everyone else. "Maybe you should put the pointy pointy shooty shooty down before someone gets a nasty cut, huh Domino?"

Ah, finally the guy speaks. And he seemed to know what was up, too. And...that wasn't good.

"Now...wait just a second. If you're saying we were supposed to be dead but now we're not - that means we can get back home, right? I don't know about the rest of you, but I sort of have a person to worry about back there. So what'll it take to make that happen?"

Seemed like introductions were just about done, but. "Excuse me, with a name like Elijah Snow I figured you probably just didn't...need an alter ego. You're one of those guys who's got a name that's already a superhero name. Like Dr. Strange!"

She starts walking after, and looks over her shoulder to Bullseye. "Domino, right? I'm pretty sure none of us have any idea what you're talking about. Last world I was on, Rogers was the Earth's bestest hero and Nick Fury was... um... complicated. But slaveholders? That sounds like one suck of a universe you just bounced out of."

As she absorbs the full brunt of the situation, she finally relaxes, unnotching the adamantium arrows but not retracting the bow as she holds it at her side. Looking to the weird cartoon girl, she replies, "you have no idea. And who the hell is Domino? The name's Bullseye."

She ponders giving out her real name, but despite the lack of the... what was the word Clint had always used... 'hinky' feeling she wasn't getting, she still wasn't sure that this wasn't a trap. Or some sort of elaborate illusion. Or all in her head and just a dream. She'd learned long ago that pinching yourself never works in dreams, so she didn't bother. Sliding the arrows back into the quiver on her hip, she slowly approaches the others, keeping her hood up but pulling down the facemask to reveal the rest of her pale white face.

"I take it that, if what you're saying is correct, Snow, the 'multiverse' had something more in mind for us than standing around... so what next?"

Taking in Elijah's casual explanation, and the gist of the more sprightly characters' perplexing postulations, it seemed clear to Patsy that she wasn't in any particular danger from them... though the archer was casting aspersions she wasn't fond of.

"So am I to believe this is Heaven? Purgatory? Hell? I might accept that last one. But you seem awfully nonchalant about being here." she shifted into a non-aggressive stance. "And I find several of you quite hard to believe, if I'm being frank." she added, gazing over the rest of the assembled group, lingering on Slapstick, and settling on Bullseye.

"Oh, uh, somebody that looks just like you, because of the monochrome and the spot... it was, they had a luck theme?", Gwen says to Bullseye with a palmshrug and a helpless grin.

She then turns to Fury, though, piping in with, "Oh, hey, they called me Unbelievable before, too. So. Déjà vu! And- heh-" She points. "- you haven't seen anything yet, Golden Age. This is gonna be a trip."

"I couldn't tell you about Heaven or Hell. I've never been there. My brief experience with the afterlife informed me I don't belong there." Elijah actually sounds slightly saddened by that. It had been a beautiful place. "But unlike the rest of you, my trip here was more deliberate. I'd guess that what's next for us is up there." He points at the big, central silver thing.

"As for going back...well, we'd need some way to transition through the Bleed and a proper set of coordinates. Unfortunately, this place here is rather hard to reach by normal means, so I can't think of any real way back right now that'd be safe. I can't say I know of your Doctor Strange, either. In fact, I don't think I know of any of you directly, though cross-universal things are always...strange." Pause. "The Bleed would be the space between universes, incidentally. It's red and dangerous."

That seems to cover the important things to know about it.

"Oh, and at a guess, most of you other than Miss Fury here are from after the year 2000?"

If you ever need the Defenders drawn as ponies or the cast of Doctor Who, I know where to hook you up.

Please don't want those things.

Starband
pp 1, xp 0

She had ignored all the goings on, but this was not due to any lack of interest as such. Berenice Blaire, The Dazzling Starband, was distracted by something far more immediate to her. "It's so quiet." She stared off into the middle distance, back to the others. "No. No. It's LOUD. It's every sound, every single sound!" Silence caused not by the lack of sound but by every single bit of noise slamming into it's polar opposite and nullifying each other into nothing. Just like she had been. She had died. She had been dust. But now she was here.

It was so loud here, she could feel herself vibrating. Oh god, she was sparkling now. The noise so overwhelming her powers had no choice but to turn utterance to luminescence. In the end, there was only one sentiment The Starband could express.

"Cat's out of the bag." Patsy's gaze hadn't lifted off of the newcomer, as though she were waiting. "You don't look or sound like Jerry, but if you're after Captain America, I've got bad news and worse news."

"He hasn't been a Captain since the war started. Field Marshall Rogers is one of the most bloodthirsty and violent commanders in the Unified American forces... though from the sound of it, I guess your Global Stalemate War went a little differently..."

She arches a brow at the woman talking about Dracula, "... think this one might be tweaking out on something."

"Yeah, uh, 2018 actually?" Peter responds to Snow's question. "What...are you telling me we have some temporal goof ups as well? I mean, I guess it makes sense since different dimensions wouldn't necessarily vibrate at the same speed, but still that's pretty..."

At Domino's, no wait Bullseye's (who, as far as Peter recalled, was a guy who killed one of Oscorp's attorneys while Peter was trying to take down the Kingpin WITHOUT the armor a couple years back) words though, he paused.

"Uh, Captain Rogers was a superhero from around the WW2 era. And from all accounts a pretty decent guy. He broke up Hydra back at the end of the war. In fact a lot of bio-research from my world is based on the back of the serum that gave him his powers." Peter adds helpfully, neglecting to mention his own research that caused HIS powers was also based on that serum. "Also what the heck is a 'Global Stalemate War' and why does it sound so depressing?"

He glanced at the Dracula comment coming from the apparently glowing woman who had appeared staring off into the middle distance by herself. "Uh...hi, there. It's pretty freaky up there, I think I was thinking I had a concussion, at first. Probably best not to stare at it. I think we're figuring out our next move if you want to join the rest of the class?"

LifeGetsWorser fucked around with this message at May 16, 2018 around 03:10

A somewhat short man has appeared behind the group, sweeping the path of light with a janitor's broom. "This thing's filthy enough as it is, I don't need any dustups making my job harder than it already is!" He pushes the broom gently against Elijah Snow's feet a few times, waiting for him to move aside a bit. As he does, the strange little man sweeps a little pile of sparkling dust out from under where Snow's shoe was just a moment prior. "You'd be really surprised how gross interdimensional crossroads can get!" He sweeps the little dust pile off the edge of the path and into the void. Looking over and Starband and the glitters encircling her, he pulls out a handkerchief from his back pocket and wipes them away, as though cleaning dust off the glass of reality.

The broom and kerchief disappear and the man brushes his hands together, satisfied with the cleanliness of the empty, endless void. "There we go, hah! Look at you guys - man, the multiverse must be desperate! What are you in for?" He holds out his hand and a small notepad appears in it. "Let's see, let's see...Wrong way through a magic door, check. Shot by nazis, check! Killed as a result of Dracula taking over an intergalactic alien empire? Sheesh, you win that contest..." The odd little man crosses off all the names, then summons up a pencil to write in, "And...stowaway." He sticks his tongue out at Snow. "Alright, gang's all here!"

"I think this schmuck over here spoiled the surprise on where 'here' is, but I'm going into it anyway! This, my fine frolicking friends, is the Nexus of ALL REALITIES!" His voice echoes dramatically throughout the nothing, but what it is bouncing off is anyone's guess. "I'm Bender, the janitor. And you'll have to excuse me, I don't get a whole lot of company! HAH!" He bounces over to Goblin, putting an arm around his neck. "I think we're gonna get on just fine, though! Especially me and this guy!" He gives Peter an affectionate noogie and a pat on the back before bouncing away and turning to face the group throwing his arms high into the air. "And you...Are Exiles!" The word echoes again in all their ears from different directions, as though some unseen force were performing a speaker test on their new surround sound system.

"Yes, Exiles!" The echo again. "I never get tired of that." He chuckles, snorting slightly. "Detached from your world, doomed to travel the multiverse bringing order to chaos, preventing wanton destruction and the deaths of potential realities, yadayadayada...Look, the get the deal, right? Something's rotten in the state of multiverse. Someone or something out there in TVLand is winking universes out of existence before their time. You bunch of sad sacks are going out there to put a stop to it, and maybe - just maybe - you'll find your way home. You're all Sam Becketts now and you're about to do your first big Quantum Leap!"

Bender shrugs, and gestures to the void around himself. "There's not really a whole lotta good camping spots. If you really wanna stay here nobody's stopping you, but...Look, you go with the team and you get to do some good. You save enough worlds, the multiverse cuts you some slack. You die trying, well...then you go where you would've gone anyway. Pretty sweet deal all things said and done, right?"

Going back to thinking he was dead or concussed, especially when the guy jumps up onto his glider and gives him a noogie, Peter frowns under his mask. Bullseye asks the question he was going to, luckily, and when this Bender character responded in a rather blase fashion the Goblin harumphed and stood up.

"So, are you the one who picked us, then? A janitor to sweep up the interdimensional garbage, is it?" He pauses. If what the little man said was true than everyone back home might think he already WAS dead.

"In theory, I'm in, but what reassurances do we have that everything's ok back home. Sounds like the rest of you had some pretty apocalyptic things going on before here, with your magic portals and space draculas, but I was just trying to save my...er, teammate. I'd like to make sure she's alright, that my city, my world, is alright, before I go around trying to save everybody else's."

LifeGetsWorser fucked around with this message at May 16, 2018 around 03:10

Elijah steps back, out of the way. He squints for a moment at Bender. Not what he'd expected.

"You get television reception here, then?"

That's also unexpected.

"So are you an Exile, too, Bender, or did you just start here?"

The mission statement makes a certain amount of sense. He turns to the Goblin.

"I can't promise you anything, but...if you happen to know the quantum coordinates of your reality in the Snowflake, then I can try to have someone check up on things. But given the number of universes out there...finding a single, specific one without a reliable set of coordinates in the Bleed is practically impossible. Doing it from here would be even harder - all the equipment I know of is back in my home universe, and it doesn't sound as if the Snowflake plans to give us much choice in our destinations."

Bender chuckles and snorts at the questions. At the questions of his origin, he rises into the air in a meditating position, floating above the path. "What, you guys think I'm one with the multiverse or something? Nah, I've just got a timeshare up there." He points up to the sprawling building-planet at the center. "It's a nice holiday getaway if you don't mind non-euclidean geometry getting in the way of your suntan! We've got transdimensional cable up there, fully stocked movie theatre - hey, you ever wanna see what Star Wars woulda been like with Christopher Walken as Han? Come by sometime and I'll show ya! Anyway, you bunch got called here because you're needed. Maybe there's a consciousness behind it, maybe not. Don't ask me, I'm just a working joe! HAH!"

He stretches out in the air now, as though lying on a sofa. "Hey, I understand. It's hard being sucked away into the thankless abyss, I ain't completely heartless or anything...Listen, I've picked up a trick or two while hanging around this joint. Wanna see something cool?" He pulls a top hat out from behind his back, reaches inside, and pulls out a small crystal ball, about the size of his fist. Then he throws it into the air, juggling it as he pulls out more and more crystals until there are six. As he juggles them, he starts to toss one to each of the assembled Exiles. "These little babies allow you to check in on home while you're away. Use 'em, lose 'em, up to you! It might not be pretty what you see, but if you make it through this thing to the other side, you'll be popped down just like you never left. Except, you know, alive this time. You get a second chance at life! Not a lot of folks can say that! Well...I guess drat near every single one of you super types can, now that I think of it...HAH!"